A LETTER TO THE 2020 GRADUATES 🎓

Dear 2020 Graduate,

It was March 2020… and we were counting down the days until college graduation. It was bittersweet. There were so many senior moments we had to look forward to.

For me, I had my last formal, senior sendoff, senior bar crawl, and not one… but TWO graduations!

I was supposed to be walking twice. First, with my friends in the undergraduate ceremony. Then, in NYC for the graduate ceremony. I had worked so hard to get my master’s degree in 4.5 years. I rarely celebrate myself and this was my moment to let myself shine.

And then the world changed.

All the fun senior events that we were so excited for never happened. We kept our hopes up that it would just be a few months and that we’d all get the graduation we hoped for.

That didn’t happen either.

But two years later… I finally got to walk! When the class of 2022 was graduating, the classes of 2020 and 2021 were both invited back to join the ceremony.

It wasn’t the same as it would have been. I wasn’t surrounded by any of my friends. We were separated by our schools within the university. The student speakers were from 2022. In fact, not many people from my year even showed up.

But I’m still grateful for that day. I had my parents and my sister with me. They made me feel so special… capturing candid pictures and videos of me the whole time.

I’m not sure why I never posted these pictures. Maybe I felt weird since I had finished school almost two years prior. Or maybe I felt odd because I questioned that what I received my master’s in wasn’t actually for me. I decided to teach instead.

Whatever the reason, it feels good to be sharing these memories now.

Please comment if you can relate to this. Although missing out on these big life events can feel lonely, we are not alone. Even three years later, let yourself feel all the feelings and give yourself grace. It’s okay to grieve what could have been. Then do your best to focus on what IS and find the positives. 💛

Xoxo,

A Fellow 2020 Graduate

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